Nitinol staples are often used to stabilize bones in orthopedic podiatry, hand, and wrist surgeries. As used herein, the term “bone” is intended to refer to whole bones, bone fragments, and other portions of the skeleton. Nitinol staples may be used to compress a pair of bones separated by a cut or break to encourage healing. Nitinol staples may also be used to compress a pair of bones on opposite sides of an implant to encourage fusion of the bones and implant construct.
A nitinol staple may be implanted by first drilling holes for legs of the staple in the bones sought to be stabilized. The legs of the staple are splayed apart, which elastically deforms the staple, and are inserted into the holes. The resilient properties of the nitinol staple tend to draw the legs back together which compresses the bones. The compressive force applied by the staple encourages bone growth between the bones.
A nitinol staple provides a limited amount of compression which is in acceptable in some applications. In other applications, however, a greater amount of compression or increased stability is desired such that two staples are implanted in the bones. Specifically, one staple is implanted in one side of the bones and the other staple is implanted in an opposite side of the bones. Implanting two staples on opposite sides of the bones may complicate the surgical procedure. Further, in some applications, a greater amount of compression and/or increased stability is desired but the surrounding anatomy may inhibit the use of two staples on opposite sides of the bones.
Another problem with the use of nitinol staples is that a large number of staples are provided in a surgical kit. For example, a surgical kit may include staples having different staple bridge lengths to position the legs of the staples different distances apart. For each staple bridge length, the surgical kit would also include staples with different leg lengths. Providing both a range of staple bridge lengths and staple leg lengths significantly increases the number of staples required in the kit.